Saying Goodbye
by DIJ
Summary: After the events in the Arklay Mountains, Rebecca Chambers's returned to her family days before the bombing of Raccoon City.  There, tormented by guilt and doubt, Rebecca comes to an uncomfortable decision.


**A/N:**

This was written as a part of a prompt challenge. For this piece the prompt was "androgynous." All fics in this challenge relate to an upcoming larger worker, and take place in mid 1999, after the events of RE 0, 1, & 2. Original characters are involved in the way of family members. They are, by name and relationship:

Caleb, Judas & Saul Chambers - Rebecca's three brothers in order of age from youngest to eldest.  
Nicholas Kaestner - A friend of Rebecca's and Caleb's from college.

The nickname "chibi-chan" isn't actually as random as it might first appear. Due to Rebecca being modeled from Ayumi Hamasaki, it has been a long held belief of mine that she's half Japanese. In this fan-verse, her mother is a Japanese-American immigrant; her brothers gave her that nickname when she was younger.

Written solely by Covenmouse. (One of the DIJ duo. Posted here as it belongs to the joint 'verse-see profile for more info.)

* * *

With her short hair, and body-lines hidden behind over-sized army castoffs, she thought she looked more like a young boy than a woman a few days shy of twenty. Even with a pair of tiny studs sparkling at her earlobes.

Her brothers loved to make fun of her when she wore things like this. Standing before the full-length mirror, Rebecca adjusted her baseball cap to better hide her face and then re-tucked the dog-tags and chain under her shirt and jacket.

_It doesn't matter_, she reminded herself, and turned to take one last look at the bedroom. It had been her home for close to five months, now, yet there wasn't much to say about her occupation of the place, other than the fact that she'd gotten used to it. _Five months... has it really been so long? _

She pulled on a thin, faded green jacket and began to button it up. At once, it seemed as though she'd been in her brother's house for years, and as if she'd left Raccoon City just a day ago. The wound, as her father liked to say, was still raw. About as raw as the smoking pit that had once been the largest city in Montana.

Crossing to the nightstand, she picked up the small picture frame that had been set there. Her brothers, mother and father all smiled up at her from behind the pane. The picture was years old, now-back when the twins, Saul and Judas, still had matching haircuts, Caleb was still wearing those ridiculous striped polos he'd enjoyed so much, and her parents had much less gray in their hair. She forced herself to put the picture back upon the stand and, with her other hand, grabbed the single duffel she had left to her name. Turning upon her heel, Rebecca marched herself out the door and down the stairs.

Saul was waiting in the kitchen.

He looked up as she came in and gave her a nod, though disapproval was written clearly across his face. Rebecca set the duffel on the table as she took down a spare travel mug and poured coffee into it from the brew Caleb had left warming that morning. They'd said their goodbyes the night before; she hadn't thought she'd be able to do it this morning.

"Thanks for the ride," she said after she'd put a cap on the mug and gave it a testing sip. Saul pursed his lips and grabbed her bag before she could, motioning to the door with his other hand.

"Do you have the keys?" he asked.

"Yeah. Caleb said to give them to you, before I get on the plane."

He nodded and held the screen door open as she exited, drawing the light key-chain from her pocket. There were only two items on it-a house key and a beer-shaped pendant that she'd dug out of a drawer to use when he'd given her the spare. It was strange to think, as she locked the door behind them, that for several hours she would be key-less. No car, no house... not even a P.O. box.

When she'd gotten the house locked up, Saul drew his own heavily-loaded set from his pocket with a raucous jingle as they thumped down the porch steps and across the gravel parking space to his monster of a truck. Rebecca followed, well aware that she was putting all too much importance on such a tiny symbol. The acknowledgment of that didn't make her any less queasy over it.

Saul opened the truck door for her, too, and stepped aside only after tossing her duffel unceremoniously into the backseat. How he managed to do that when the foot of the truck's cab was as tall as his chest, she didn't rightly know; somehow he and Judas, both, seemed to manage.

In lieu of proper steps, he handed her up into the cab, and then shut the door for her when she was rightly settled. When he'd rounded the truck and climbed into the driver's side, Rebecca fixed a look upon him. "Why are you being so formal all of a sudden?"

"It's called 'manners', Becca."

"Manners," she slurred and shook her head as she clicked her seat-belt into place. Staring out the window at Caleb's house as they pulled away, she continued in as light a tone she could manage, "Since when does a troll have manners?"

Her brother gave a derisive snort and he fist-tapped her shoulder in brotherly reprimand. Despite herself, she smiled and glanced at him. Saul's attention had shifted to turning the truck around, a good feat in the spring-churned mud of Montana, and then stayed fixed on guiding them down the long drive, back to the highway.

"You grew up," she said softly, earning herself a strange look from the man.

"Don't sound so shocked. It had to happen sometime."

"Judas didn't," she countered to cover her blush.

"Yeah, well... we don't have to share _everything_, do we?" The smirk written across his face was no different than Judas's would have been, Rebecca noted. When it came down to it, the twins were equally devious. The difference was that Saul was quiet about it, whereas Judas...well. He was quite the showman.

Playing with Caleb's house key, Rebecca shrugged and replied, "I suppose not."

Saul didn't so much as glance at the radio, she noted, though they continued on in silence for several minutes afterward. When he seemed inclined to let that extend, she reached over to switch the device on. It was a cold comfort, roaring down the highway to the ear-bleeding sound of Saul's trashy music just as they had so many times before.

When the station switched to the next screaming musician, Saul turned the volume down enough that he could state, "You don't have to do this, you know."

"Yes, I do."

He sighed and turned the radio off again. "Rebecca. I don't know what the hell happened at Racoon City, but I'm damned sure it doesn't mean you have to go flying off across the country to-"

"Saul," she snapped.

"-God knows what! It doesn't make any damned sense. You know we don't have any problem-"

"I know you don't have a problem. _I_ have a problem-"

"We're your family, and we want you around, _goddamit_. Not a thousand miles away where this sort of thing-" He gestured emphatically as if to prove his statement.

"You don't know anything about my situation, so-"

"We would know about your 'situation' if you'd tell us about it!" He slapped one hand against his steering wheel in emphasis.

Rebecca shut her mouth with click of teeth and turned again to look out the window. Remembering "her situation" made her feel sick. She wrapped her arms tight about herself, glad that she hadn't eaten anything that morning; she would have lost it over the seat. In an effort to calm herself, she took another sip of her coffee.

A moment later Saul sighed, and the leather of the steering wheel squeaked as his fist adjusted upon it. "Chibi-chan," he sighed in a tone of exasperation that she didn't like being used with her age-old nickname, "I know you can take care of yourself, but this is still... weird.

"You come back from that place days before it blows. You refuse to talk about it, _or _why you got fired, but dad insists you're going through something and that we let you alone about it." Saul paused in his little tirade to suck in some breath and Rebecca turned to look at him. He let it all out again in a huff. "You're my baby sister. Do I really have to _tell_ you that I'm worried?"

"No. You and Judas pull a pretty good impression of guard dogs."

He chuckled and scrubbed a hand through his short dark hair. Unlike Rebecca, all three of the Chambers boys had taken more after their mom than their dad; the twins, especially so.

Identical to a fault, they boasted their mom's jet-black hair, almond coloured and shaped eyes, the slight stature... Add in their muscular, bull-dog like frames and the pair resembled nothing so much as a matching set of Japanese thugs, straight out of a Yakuza movie. They'd joked for years about getting the tattoo work done, much to their mother's aggravation.

"Caleb's pretty worried, too."

"I know." Rebecca pursed her lips and tipped her head back against the seat. Outside the truck, the Montana countryside sped by. At this speed, they'd reach the airport in no time. "He really didn't want me to leave."

"None of us do."

"Not what I meant." They shared as much of a glance as Saul could allow before his gaze was pulled back to the road. Rebecca rubbed one arm. In her mind's eye, she could still see Caleb sitting at the counter the night before, looking like a kicked and very grumpy puppy. "He's on edge, lately. Keep... keep an eye on him. Please?"

"Duh." Saul punctuated the statement with a derisive snort. "He's my brother, too, Chibi-chan."

Refusing to let the heat of her cheeks bother her, Rebecca reached over to nudge Saul's side. He playfully slapped her hand away. In another moment they'd turned off the main highway and onto the airport road. The building, a tiny thing that fit perfectly in with rustic, small-town feel of everything else in that part of Montana, stood on the other side of a half-filled parking lot.

Saul snagged the first parking space he found which could fit his monstrosity of a truck, and Rebecca grabbed her duffel and slid out of the vehicle before he could help her.

"Do you have your ticket?" he asked as he slid an arm around her shoulders to lead her to the airport.

"He asks when we're already at the airport and I would miss my flight if I didn't."

"Damn, caught me." Saul snapped his fingers. "No fooling the family genius."

She rolled her eyes and nudged him. "Stop it. I have my ticket, and money to live on, and a job waiting for me. It won't be as bad as you think."

"Will you at least tell us where you are when you get there?"

Silence overcame them again as Rebecca considered that. Saul held the door for her when they reached it, and followed her to check-in, then the security line. When they were nearly at the head of the line, Rebecca finally turned to him. "Houston," she said so quietly that he for a second he hadn't seemed to hear her.

"Hou-"

"Don't." Rebecca frowned at him.

Saul stared at her a moment, and then glanced about them at the disinterested patrons of the airport. Before he could ask, they reached the metal detectors. After a quick security check, they passed through just as the intercom announced her flight boarding.

Rushing for the gate was as good an excuse for not speaking as any. Saul didn't seem inclined to make a fuss about it, either; he helped her find the right terminal and watched her hand over her boarding pass.

"Rebecca," he started, and she cut him off with a tight hug about his middle.

"I'll write, OK? I'll be fine." Giving him her best smile, she shouldered her duffel for carry-on and realized as she shifted it that she was still holding Caleb's key.

Rebecca stared down at the scrap of metal in her hand. Saul gave her a dubious look as she finally handed it over, and then took it with a reluctant nod.

"Be careful," he warned and returned her slight wave as she backed into the terminal. As she turned to board properly, she tried to pretend there wasn't a wet sting at her eyes, that she couldn't feel her sinus's closing.

As the plane lifted off, Rebecca watched out the cabin window and tried to pretend that she could still see her brother on the other side of the glass. She didn't know if he'd watch that long, but she liked to think he would. Keyless and alone on a plane filled with people, she wrapped her arms about herself and tried not to think about the fact that she'd never see them again.


End file.
